


Positive reinforcement

by towardsmorning



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Community: yj_anon_meme, Family, Fluff, Gen, Hugs, batfamily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-05
Updated: 2011-02-05
Packaged: 2017-10-15 10:42:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/160023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towardsmorning/pseuds/towardsmorning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>(Prompt: I want to see Batman acting as a parental figure towards Robin. And to be awesome at it. You could maybe include hugs?)</i></p><p>"Batman is looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes that anyone else would be likely to find intimidating, but which Robin knows well enough to interpret as Batman's 'what is the appropriate way to respond to people who are actually remotely normal' face."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Positive reinforcement

Robin isn't moping. He's not, really. _Really._

Fine, so maybe he's still a little touchy about the leadership... thing... that went down on the mission. He shouldn't be, Robin understands that fact perfectly well. If he _didn't_ understand that then he wouldn't have handed it over in the first place. Everything worked out for the best once he gave leadership to Aqualad, it was the right decision to make and all this means is that Robin has to work on a couple of things before he gets to where he wants to be.

So when Robin hangs around in his room at the team's headquarters instead of going back to the manor, it's _not_ sulking. Not even if he's thrown himself on the bed. Not even if his head is buried in a pillow. Not even if he's not going back to the Manor tonight at all.

It's just. Team building.

Yeah.

He bats away the idea that team building probably involves spending time with the rest of the team.

"Robin."

 _Speaking of Bats._ Robin finally removes his face from the pillow, which is actually a good idea because pressing down on your face while wearing sunglasses hurts more than a little. And then he stands up, because that's pretty much what you do by default when Batman walks in a room.

"Hey, Batman. What's up?" It can't be another mission already- Robin hasn't heard any commotion about Batman's arrival, which meant he hadn't wanted to let his presence known. _Note to self: ask him about this place's secret entrances._

"Alfred said you're staying here for the night."

"Oh. Yeah. ...That's OK, right?" And fine, so maybe he should have asked Batman first, but his mentor had made it very clear that he wouldn't have patrol for the next day after Kobra and it's not like this wasn't what the room Robin had here was _for_. The room Batman had given him, so really-

"You're sulking." Batman's voice snaps him out of his musings.

"No I'm not!" _Oh, yeah, that sounds mature,_ he immediately adds in his mind. Batman is looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes that anyone else would be likely to find intimidating, but which Robin knows well enough to interpret as Batman's 'what is the appropriate way to respond to people who are actually remotely normal' face.

Batman wears that face a lot around Robin, if he's honest. Not as much as he used to, when it was Bruce hovering around Dick in the mansion and you could just see the poor guy going _oh Jesus Christ it's a kid what do kids even do what do I do, why is Alfred smirking and refusing to help_ , because adopting circus orphans on a whim is a pretty good reason to panic, as it transpires. But that look still crops up every now and again.

"You are." Batman pauses, then shakes his head, and _there, that's his 'aha' face_. "You said you were fine with Aqualad as leader."

"I am!" No response. "It's just- kind of a big adjustment."

Batman nods.

He really has a way of making Robin feel petty. Saying it out loud is... well.

Yeah.

It's not like it's even the first time Robin's gone through this, either. When Bruce said _fine, you can come along on patrol_ , Dick had thought he meant _right then_. And of course he didn't.

'You need practice.'

'You need training.'

'You need to be ready.'

At the time he'd just been irritated at the waiting and he'd just wanted to get out onto the streets already, but if he _hadn't_ waited, they wouldn't be the team they made today.

Batman snaps him out of his reverie again after a short pause. His voice is gentler. Which isn't to say it's actually, you know, gentle, but it's not the voice Batman uses on the street. It's the one he uses in the cave, when it's him and Robin (and sometimes Batgirl, but not as often as Batman and Robin).

"Aqualad was right, you realise," and he pauses, clearly making sure he says the right thing, "it will- come. With time. You will be ready eventually, and when it does, they'll accept you. You are-"

Batman doesn't finish, but it doesn't really matter. Robin hears the _good enough_ without needing him to. Which is necessary when dealing with Batman, because getting full sentences of praise out of him is like getting blood from a stone. Robin wonders if the team realises just how much they ought to be grateful for his words earlier, because they'll soon realise they probably won't be coming again for a while.

The point is, hearing 'you're good enough to lead alone' from Batman is striking. Literally. It strikes him down. It feels good. It feels like he's already accomplished _something_. It feels like one step, which makes the rest of the steps feel so much more possible.

"...I'm proud of you. For making the right decision."

Robin hadn't realised how much he'd been waiting for that.

Robin smiles at Batman, and Batman's mouth curves up in that not-quite-smile that Robin always says he ought to get patented or something, one that tends to be reserved for Robin on nights when nobody needs stitches and he's hyped up enough on the way home to still be cracking jokes. And then apparently Robin has still got some adrenaline left over from the mission or whatever, because- there is a pretty clear unspoken rule that if he really _has_ to hug his mentor it should be as Bruce and not Batman. But right now, he doesn't care and he goes for it anyway.

There are a couple of long moments where Batman is wound up tight and Robin is kind of starting to panic, but then he feels heavy arms wrap around him as awkwardly as humanely possible. It's stiff, and clumsy, and hugging someone in what basically amounts to a kevlar fancy dress costume is the most difficult thing ever.

But it's also really nice. So Robin just stands there for a while and hangs on, and if he closes his eyes it doesn't matter that this isn't the manor, or the circus: it's home.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] Positive reinforcement](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8912224) by [reena_jenkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reena_jenkins/pseuds/reena_jenkins), [towardsmorning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/towardsmorning/pseuds/towardsmorning)




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